OK, you read some of the Fermatsearch pages, you understood some of the backgrounds of the search and learnt its history.
Now what? You found yourself willing to help the search, but there are still some questions you need answered, i.e. where should I start my search?

The first thing to do is to decide what kind of work you want to do. If you want to do some ecm curves, go to ecm link, and follow the instrucions.
If you prefer working with old-fashioned, simpler trial-factoring, downloadfermat.exe or GMP-Fermat in a folder of your choice, and launch it.
There are four values you need to input: From N, To N, For k and To k.

Now it's time to decide our values. The table below shows an example of research for N=30.

From N

To N

From k

To k

Researcher

Status

30

30

2,000,000,000,000

5,320,000,000,000

Phil Moore

factoring

30

30

5,320,000,000,000

30,000,000,000,000

Vladimir Knotko

factoring

30

30

30,000,000,000,000

35,000,000,000,000

Luigi Morelli

factoring

30

30

35,000,000,000,000

60,000,000,000,000

Stefan Gerhold

factoring

30

30

60,000,000,000,000

70,000,000,000,000

Stephen Schroder

factoring

30

30

70,000,000,000,000

75,000,000,000,000

Konstantin Khodayev

factoring

30

30

75,000,000,000,000

150,000,000,000,000

Takahiro Nohara

factoring

30

30

150,000,000,000,000

200,000,000,000,000

Matt Anderson

factoring

30

30

200,000,000,000,000

400,000,000,000,000

Tapio Rajala

factoring

30

30

400,000,000,000,000

500,000,000,000,000

Stefan Kucher

factoring

30

30

500,000,000,000,000

550,000,000,000,000

Fabrice Le Foulher

factoring

30

30

550,000,000,000,000

600,000,000,000,000

Rick van der Hoorn

factoring

30

30

600,000,000,000,000

650,000,000,000,000

Rick van der Hoorn

factoring

30

30

650,000,000,000,000

700,000,000,000,000

Fabrice Le Foulher

factoring

30

30

700,000,000,000,000

1,000,000,000,000,000

Fabrice Le Foulher

factoring

30

30

1,000,000,000,000,000

2,000,000,000,000,000

Tapio Rajala

factoring

30

30

2,000,000,000,000,000

3,000,000,000,000,000

Takahiro Nohara

factoring

30

30

3,000,000,000,000,000

5,000,000,000,000,000

Takahiro Nohara

factoring

30

30

5,000,000,000,000,000

10,000,000,000,000,000

Luigi Morelli

factoring

30

30

10,000,000,000,000,000

100,000,000,000,000,000

Marvin Lukasik

factoring

30

30

100,000,000,000,000,000

110,000,000,000,000,000

Marvin Lukasik

factoring

30

30

110,000,000,000,000,000

200,000,000,000,000,000

Marvin Lukasik

factoring

Now let us try some searches on the database tables.
Just input starting and ending values of N in the boxes below, press the button and check the possible searches.
You may use the testing link to time your calculations.

Note that ranges are not always taken homogeneously, so it is advisable to test wider n-ranges , check the work done and then redefine a smaller range.

Still feeling puzzled? Don't worry, just follow the link towards available ranges.